social media BS killing my general contracting leads in north jersey

I'm in north jersey, zone 5, running a small general contracting outfit and this social media crap is pissing me off. I dropped $2k on Facebook ads targeting local homeowners for kitchen remodels last month, and all I got was a flood of cheap-ass DIYers quoting me against Home Depot prices. Mentioned it in The Contractor Fight group and everyone said the same, algorithms burying real pros under influencers pushing Ryobi tools. Meanwhile, I'm out here with real crews doing full gut jobs using DeWalt gear, but no one's seeing my posts. SMH, thought it'd boost my $150k year but it's just wasting time and cash. Anyone else dealing with this crap? Saw a Tommy Mello video saying pivot to video content, but idk if that's worth it for a one-man show like mine.

Hit $300k last year by ditching FB ads and going all-in on Google Business Profile with before/after pics of remodels, works like a charm.

lol i posted a timelapse of me fixing a sagging deck and got a call from a cat video algorithm instead.

SharkBite fittings behind walls? Nah, social media's the real hack job, full of hacks pretending to be pros.

doubled my residential work by focusing on local FB groups, no ads needed.

how do you filter out the tire-kickers from those group leads?

walked into a job today where the homeowner saw some insta reel and tried 'fixing' their own wiring, total disaster and now they blame me for the code violation.

i feel you brother, social media's turned every weekend warrior into an 'expert'.

yeah man, been there with the ad spend black hole.

what's your go-to platform now that FB's tanking?

skip the ads, post daily stories of real jobs with DeWalt tools in action, landed three $10k remodels that way.

totally get it, the bots and fake engagement are screwing over legit contractors left and right.

those algorithms are rigged against small ops like us, big corps buying all the visibility.

pisses me off too, wasting cash on shadowbanned posts while influencers rake in leads for free.